1. Field
The following description relates to methods and apparatus of image rendering and to methods and apparatus of generating and traversing an acceleration structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Three-dimensional (3D) rendering refers to an image processing technique for extracting an image viewed from a given viewpoint of a camera from 3D object data. Ray tracing refers to a process of tracing a point where scene objects to be rendered and a ray intersect to render an image. A ray tracing method involves tracing a path of light incident along a ray passing through each pixel of an image from a view point of a camera to generate the image from 3D object data. Since physical characteristics of light, such as reflection, refraction, and transmission, may be reflected in a rendering result by using the ray tracing method, high quality images may be obtained. Accordingly, ray tracing technique is widely used in 3D rendering fields such as a movie production or an animation production in which realistic scenes are rendered.
With regard to the ray tracing method, an image is rendered by repeating a process of finding an intersection at which an object intersects with a ray and tracing a ray that is reflected or refracted from the intersection. Ray tracing includes traversal of an acceleration structure and an intersection test between a ray and a primitive. Performing the traversal and the intersection test requires a large amount of computation and a broad memory bandwidth.